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Journalism of Courage
The BJP,having detected in the freeing of petrol prices
a conspiracy to finish the common man that plays into the hands of racketeers has called,through its president,Nitin Gadkari,for a nationwide bandh on July 5. The Left has gathered together the usual suspects the Janata Dal United,the Biju Janata Dal,Jayalalithaas AIADMK and reportedly the two Yadavs for a nationwide dawn to dusk hartal,not so coincidentally on July 5. Their claim: that the government is putting forward deceptive arguments to justify the hike and refuses to listen to peoples protests. Clearly,this protest,too,should not be listened to. But the arguments that are being made,and that have been made over and over again without reasonable answer for some time,are hardly deceptive.
Their unanswerability was only underlined by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora when he pointed out that it was the United Front government of the 90s in which the Communist Party of India was a constituent,to which the Communist Party of India Marxist and others on the left provided crucial outside support that first notified the deregulation of petrol and diesel prices in 1997. Indeed,that notification had added LPG and kerosene to the list,and said that the process would be complete by 2002. In the interim,of course,the government changed but the BJP-led NDA was no different,which in April 2002 freed the pricing of petrol and diesel. To now attack the belated adoption of that very progressive policy by the UPA is beyond hypocritical. It reflects a lack of responsible engagement.
